Migration

Friday, March 27th. It’s a warm misty afternoon here on the base and all 25 people in our class are attempting to clean their rooms at the same time in a two hour window. I’ll be shocked if there’s not blood shed over the disinfectant spray by 3pm. Lisa and I are about to walk out the door in 30 minutes to spend three days on planes, trains, and automobiles traveling to Uganda. We are the first of three teams to leave the base this weekend….SOMEONE JUST BROUGHT ME HOT CHOCOLATE WITH MARSHMOLLOWS IN IT!!! I love African hospitality. The Malawi team leaves tomorrow and team India leaves Sunday.

These last two weeks have been nuts. I’ve been busy from early until late everyday…(someone just burst out into song “Leaving, on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again” The entire room joined in. I swear this place is a real life musical) back to the letter…Lisa and I have been studying every day and also helping plan the trip. It’s been exciting and stressful.

Two days ago one of our favorite team members decided he couldn’t go on “outreach” with us. He has to go home and deal with some stuff. It was sad. It got a lot more sad when we remembered he was the accountant. But now I am the accountant/treasurer and travel agent and student and leader…the team doesn’t know it yet but I’ve siphoned the funds into a private bank account for Lisa and I to buy a house on Chelan. They should find out by the time they get to Uganda.

I’m completely out of time because I have to get 9 catlikewanderers onto a train in a couple minutes. Lisa and I love all of you so much and we will miss you and technology greatly. We love you again, please pray for us and we love you.

Blown away by Ceres, South Africa

Ceres, South Africa

Wow, so much happened during our week in Ceres, it’s one of those experiences that I don’t even know where to begin or how to articulate what we experienced.  Here’s my shot at giving a glimpse of what happened.

Our team of 10 people headed 2 hours north to Ceres, South Africa where we went to be a blessing for our weeklong stay there.  Of course, like most service trips, I think we ended up receiving more of a blessing than we gave.  The only thing that we knew as we drove up to Ceres was that we were going to be working with a new church and we’d be staying in houses of church members.  We pulled into the township in Ceres and drove aimlessly around for a bit, as we all questioned whether or not our driver actually knew where we were suppose to be going.  However we eventually found the church (a tent, similar to a small circus tent) and much to our surprise we were greeted by a group if singing and dancing locals who were dressed in their traditional African outfits and holding a large sign saying “Welcome to Green Village Church”!  It was WAY more than any of us ever expected!  That was pretty much how the rest of the week continued.  The hospitality, generosity, and excitement of the local church members was absolutely humbling & inspiring!  We were consistently outdone in joy, hospitality, and generosity.

Our team members were hosted by three different households for the week; each house not being bigger than a small two-bedroom apartment.  And we were staying in the really nice part of town.  This township that we were staying in and ministering in consisted of 3 different types of homes.  The first type being government homes, which were the homes that we were staying in, are equipped with electricity, running water, and usually a fridge.  The second type of housing is a shack that is probably on average 300 square feet that is made out of scrap metal, has very low ceilings, and sometimes cooking facilities.  The third type of housing that we saw and visited were “squatter camps” which is basically houses in a dump.  Outside sewer system, 150 square foot “houses”, made with cardboard/scrap metal/zinc/anything/everything, no running water in homes, 3 outhouses for the whole community (100 people or so), and large trash piles located in the entry way to their community.  This was very hard to see and be in for even the few hours we were there.  I honestly cannot imagine living in conditions like that.  We prayed for and gave testimony to over 30 people in this community and saw a handful of people commit their lives to Jesus.  Rock on!  You can imagine how much more receptive people are to hearing about Jesus our Savior when they’re literally living in a dump.  People want hope.  I think these people are much more excited about heaven than us westerners, cause they’re not living in luxury like we are here on earth.  They are living in filth.  Most of the people in this community are single women who are raising numerous kids off of pretty much nothing.  The work opportunities obviously revolve heavily around the harvest season for fruit and if they’re lucky enough to get work their job is to work night shift at the local fruit packing plant…11 hours standing on your feet.  They need God our comforter. 

It’s been interesting for me to be in these situations because I’m finding myself needing God more too, in a different way than I need Him at home.  Back at home I generally have all of my comforts and needs covered, therefore I see my need for God in my emotional vacancy and deep yearning for a purpose to my life.  I have all of the material things back home…but something in me always tells me that I was created for more.  God created me, His unique creation, to be in relationship with Him.  The fun part now is trying to discover what God has planned for ME!  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”- Jeremiah 29:11.  But last week in Ceres I found myself appreciating more about how God provides for me in the physical things.  I thanked God for every meal I had, because most people there can’t afford to eat three meals a day.  I thanked God for a bed, because many people were sleeping in filth.   I thanked God for each cool breeze that came, because it was over 100 degrees and there was no air conditioning ANYWHERE! It wasn’t even cool in the shade.  You all know how us Hogans over-heat too!  Ugh…just thinking about it makes me perspire.  I saw a new side of God through my new situation.  It was intriguing to have my “God-in-a-box” perception shattered.  It’s oddly comforting to know that I cannot comprehend the God of the universe.  That’d be weird if I could understand someone so profound…

Anyways, our days were filled with house visits to church members and random people in the community.  We would ask people how we could pray for them, whether they were Christian or not, and we’d pray for God’s blessing over their struggles and hardships.  Our group did lots of kids ministry because there were lots of children running around the streets at all times (stalking us, because we were the only white people in the township & we played games with them).  Many times we would gather a few kids to play games in front of the church and we would end up with over 100 kids joining our circle, anxiously awaiting the game that we were going to play with them.  A game to play with 100 kids….in the middle of an uneven dirt field FILLED with broken glass and metal….hmm…do you know any?  Cause we sure struggled. Haha.  Another problem was most everyone did not speak English in the township, they spoke Xhosa.  So our team quickly learning international communication techniques for working with the children, such as big facial gestures, clapping, and loud noises.  We stretched the creative side of our brains for sure.  J 

Keith preached at one of the church services and gave a bit of testimony about how God has changed His life.  You should ask him to share those with you when we return.  J  He’s given me to go-ahead to offer that, by the way. 

Our international quest continues and we are constantly being challenged to evaluate what we believe, why we believe that, and if it’s correct.  It’s our hope to move from egocentric/ethnocentric to God-centered people.  Pray for us.  J  haha

Much Love from Africa!

p.s.  We leave for Uganda in just under 3 weeks!  We will depart on March 29^th-ish! 

p.p.s.  A great documentary to watch to gather understanding about the refugees in Uganda is called “An Unconventional War”.  Watch it!  Powerful true story about prayer. 

 

Picture 1:  Our group with the church members who greeted us into Ceres with singing and dancing!

Picture 2:  Women of the church in their traditional Xhosa dress.  Hazel, our host, is the 3^rd from the left in the top row (white dress).  She was wonderful! 

Picture 3:  I became closest with these 3 women during the week J

Picture 4:  View from our front yard.  The houses seen are the highest class government houses.

Picture 5:  In front of the grade school where we taught a class.  There were over 140 kids in a normal American sized classroom that usually holds 30 kids. 

Picture 6:  Girls who we played with and loved on all week. 

Picture 7:  Playing games with the kids in front of the Church tent aka kids attacking us